Rob Bickhart, the Republican National Committee official behind the embarrassing fundraising presentation reported this week by POLITICO, has been paid at least $370,000 since last June by the RNC in salary and consulting fees.

The size of Bickhart’s compensation has been the talk of Republican fundraising circles for months, and a source of displeasure among some RNC donors who have been generally unhappy with what they see as the RNC’s lavish spending. One complained to POLITICO that Bickhart earns “more than the President of the United States.”

Between Bickhart’s salary – he is on pace to earn a little more than $196,000 annually – and his consulting fees – which tallied $240,000 in the second half of last year alone – it appears Bickhart could receive north of $500,000 per year from the RNC.

Randy Pullen, the RNC’s treasurer and chairman of the Arizona Republican Party said Bickhart’s consulting fees – paid through a firm Bickhart started a week after accepting the RNC job – were unusual, and said he thought the RNC finance director should be paid as a full-time employee and not as a consultant.

“Bottom line is I need to find out what the relationship is and why it’s that way,” he said.

Bickhart’s presentation at a party retreat in Boca Grande, Fla., last month urged top donors and fundraisers to use “fear” of President Barack Obama to raise cash and featured images depicting Obama as the Joker from Batman, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as Cruella DeVille and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as Scooby Doo.

“I don’t think that that’s the kind of professionalism I’m used to seeing at the RNC,” Pullen said.

The presentation was immediately disavowed by RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who said he had not seen it, but it brought more controversy to his already controversial tenure as the GOP’s chief spokesman.

Bickhart has not commented publicly on the presentation, and could not be reached for comment on his compensation.

The RNC has paid Bickhart $130,131 in payroll since June, according to Federal Election Commission records, which suggest he is on pace to pull in a little more than $196,000 per year in salary. In addition, his Pennsylvania-based consulting firm, ECapitol Direct, has received $240,000 in fees paid in five installments beginning June 8 – about three weeks after he was announced as the RNC’s new finance director and about two weeks after he registered ECapitol Direct with the Pennsylvania Secretary of State’s office.

The company lists the same suburban Philadelphia address as the lobbying and political consulting firm with which Bickhart has been more publicly associated: Capitol Resource Group.

“I don’t think we have any other relationships like” Bickhart’s, said Pullen, adding he was unaware that ECapitol Direct is run by Bickhart.

“Any relationship we have that would be over $100,000, I would expect to be fairly familiar with what the relationship was,” he said, explaining he did not think that he or the Party’s executive committee was briefed on the payments to ECapitol Direct, despite an agreement last year that all big expenditures be approved by him or the committee.

But a committee source, who did not want to be identified discussing personnel issues, called the payments to Bickhart and his firm “standard” and said they were part of a “compensation agreement … based on a flat salary and a performance incentive.” The source praised Bickhart for doing "a great job considering the RNC outraised the DNC 8 out of the last 13 months.”

One informed Republican said Bickhart was able to command such a salary — equivalent to what he'd made as a private lobbyist and fundraiser — because RNC chairman Michael Steele, embattled from the beginning of his tenure, was finding it difficult to hire experienced fundraising staff.

About a week before Bickhart accepted the RNC job, Roll Call reported that he had actually turned it down, prompting the Party to hire a headhunter to try to fill it.

Several people in tight-knit Washington fundraising circles were surprised when told of the size of the payments to Bickhart, though few would say so publicly, while RNC members consulted for this story were mostly unaware of the details of Bickhart’s payment structure.

“It is not unusual to hire a fundraiser with incentives based on performance for the simple reason that if you hire someone to raise money with a fixed salary there is no incentive really for that person to work that much harder because they know they’re going to get paid anyway,” said Chris Healy, Connecticut Republican Chairman.

But he said the RNC should be more transparent about the structure of Bickhart’s deal “because this is about letting donors know exactly what they’re paying into and exactly what they’re getting for their valuable dollars.”

Another RNC member said of the payments to Bickhart’s new firm “on the face of it, it appears to me that it doesn’t pass the smell test.”

Since 2003, Capitol Resource Group, the firm with which Bickhart is publicly associated, has raked in about $584,000 in finance consulting fees from the Pennsylvania Republican Party and the political action committee headed by former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), plus another $305,000 lobbying Congress and the federal government for Philadelphia area hospitals (Bickhart terminated his lobbying registrations 1 ½ months after being announced as RNC finance director).

But Capitol Resource Group hasn’t received any recent payments from the Republican National Committee, and Bickhart did not respond to telephone and email messages asking why he created ECapitol, which – unlike Capitol Resource Group – does not have a website.

Since POLITICO revealed Bickhart’s controversial presentation this week, Republicans including Steele have distanced themselves from Bickhart’s tactics, the RNC has remained mum about his future and MSNBC host and former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough called for his firing.

“I don’t know Rob and I'm sure he has a nice family, and I feel sorry for him right now, but he should be fired,” Scarborough said on his Thursday morning show.

On Fox News, Steele said he was “trying to figure out what the intent” of Bickhart’s presentation was. “I mean, the words on paper don't sound appealing.”